The first thing I came on to say that antidepressants are not suitable without a mood stabiliser. GPs often don’t know this, the useful ones are like gold. Like pp sertraline was not good for me. It made me paranoid, I was hypomanic and I got hypnogogic hallucinations and so was taken off it immediately, prior to getting my diagnosis. I’m bipolar and am on the antipsychotic Quetiapine, an anticonvulsant Lamotrigine and an antidepressant Fluoxetine.
SLEEP: For now, while you are waiting, you need to understand that there is no management of bipolar that does not involve a good sleep schedule. Some of us need more sleep than is recommended, so try and get about 10 hours every day at the same time. This and taking medication correctly is my psychiatrist’s mantra.
EXERCISE: Exercise really does help with mood, it gives me a hit immediately in a way, I’ve anecdotally noticed it doesn’t for people who are not bipolar. I truly hate exercise, but if I’ve slept and I’ve done exercise, I know I’ll get a break from the depression. (I recognise that it can feel impossible to do this in a depressive episode though, I recommend you find someone to force you to do it when you’re having a depressive episode)
FOOD: You don’t need to go crazy and just eat brown rice, plain tofu and veg but I find I have to be mindful of what I eat. We are more likely to be obese because of the medication and impulsivity so try your best to have unhealthy foods in moderation.
Even medicated these things are still very impactful.
Negativity coming up, so if you are anxious, please feel free not to read. I don’t want to cause you any upset this is just my NHS experience and there are others who have had much better experiences.
leaving lots of space so you can consider.
On average, it takes 9 and 1/2 years to be diagnosed with bipolar on the NHS. Unfortunately, people are left with no help for years and their episodes often have to become acute before it is considered as an option. I ended up in front of psychiatrist, multiple times before diagnosis. I knew what was wrong with me because multiple people have it in my family and that was dismissed for a variety of stupid reasons including:
- I could articulate myself, I have a job (never mind I had been signed off for months) and I went to mainstream school (never mind it usually presents late teens to mid 20s)
- It seems like it had been a rough couple of months for me so it’s probably situational, not genetic
I promise you, I am not exaggerating.
I know this is not an option for everybody, but trying to get help left me so despondent that my Mum (bless her) and I scraped eventually scraped every penny we had so I could go private. Two appointments, some input from my mum, my partner and my psychotherapist and I was diagnosed with meds. The NHS psychiatrist didn’t reach out to anybody else, the appointments were significantly shorter, and because by the time I had the appointment my mood was different they really only focused on the symptoms they could see at the time so the questions were different.
I recognise the privilege here, it’s massively unfair and I know that this is not an option for everybody. Initially, I had to use any disposable income on this. Now I make the decision to only work in big companies because usually there is medical insurance, so they cover the appointment fees. I can’t work consistently though until I’m stable and titration often throws me off. Once you are stable, some GPs are happy to prescribe your medication so you’re not having to pay for it privately (sometimes it works out cheaper though).